For whom the Bell tolls…

…It tolls for thee Stuart!

Money for old rope, and I mean to keep it that way!

An election special and a personal view by TheBigYin

I am a Scotsman who has lived in Middlesbrough almost constantly since the early seventies and in that time Stuart Bell has been my MP. Like a sheep to the slaughter I voted for this guy every five years, until, that is, the smoking ban came into force. It was then I started taking politics seriously.

Middlesbrough has been likened to the arsehole backside of this country many a time but I have always found it’s people, in general, to be the most likeable, trustworthy, honourable, down to earth lot I’ve ever met. Oh sure, we have our problems here, like any other town but even we need reliable political representation, don’t we?

In those thirty odd years that we have had Sir Stuart Bell as our representative in parliament he has been noticeable by his absence…but still he gets voted in:

http://www.power2010.org.uk/blog/entry/middlesbrough-sends-a-big-message-to-stuart-bell/
 

I never new, after all these years he had a home in France…I wonder who helps pay for it?

Stuart Bell sits on some nice little earners committees, one of them looks into MPs standards, (actually he plays a key role in a "root and branch" review of MPs' expenses. )

MPs’ Expenses: There must be no Amnesty

Senior Labour MP Sir Stuart Bell said the Commons would be asked to approve an independent auditing body, which would be made up entirely of independent people, to oversee expense claim made by MP’s. If approved by the Commons, he said that this body would analyse ”every claim that is made“. On the face of it, this sounds like a positive move, however, as you might expect, there is a catch. Because, he also made clear on Channel 4 News that this body would only analyse “NEW” claims, that their remit will specifically exclude a retrospective review of prior claims. According to Bell, the setting up of this auditing body would demonstrate that MP’s are both “contrite” and keen that respect for parliament and democracy is restored. Is this man for real?

Does Stuart Bell really believe that the public will accept what amounts to a clumsy and inappropriate fudge. Ignoring past claims, which is what the public is so angered about, would amount to an amnesty for any MP that had been predisposed to lie, cheat, defraud, or deceive in relation to their expenses and/or allowances? Any attempt by Commons authorities to limit the scope of this, or any other independent auditing body, is tantamount to an admission that widespread abuse had taken place and they (MP’s) do not want further investigation. In other words, they want to draw a line under it and move on. Not acceptable. If, as they insist, everything has been “within the rules” then what have they got to worry about? The only way to restore public confidence is to have a truly independent auditing body trawl over past claims, perhaps for the past 10 years. Furthermore, if I was one of the many “honest MP’s”, then I would demand a proper investigation, if, for no other reason, than to persuade the public that there are many honest members of parliament.

Here are just some of Bell’s expenses. Oh, and he pays his wife, Lady Bell, to work as his Office Manager:

Sir Stuart's wife, Lady Margaret, receives pounds £35,000 a year as his office manager.

You, Stuart Bell, voted moderately for a smoking ban [don’t expect me to thank you for that!], when most of your constituents are smokers, they love their pint and a cigar/cigarette/pipe, I know because there are three clubs and four pubs around me in Priestfields, a working class estate where most of the [pubs and clubs] ‘clientele’ are working class smokers but you didn’t stick up for them, you abstained in a few places and in others you just did not bother to turn up.

Well I cast my vote around an hour ago and, guess what, I saw my preferred candidate on the ballot paper, along with you, the BNP, whom I’ve never seen on a ballot paper here before.

If my preferred candidate was not there, and other than vote for the BNP, who are against the smoking ban, and the independents  here are pro smoking ban, I was seriously going against my working class roots and vote for this Tory chap, thanks to Dick Puddlecote.
But don’t tell anyone that I considered voting for a Tory.

respect to my Tory voting friends. Dave Atherton comes to mind, a good man.
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On on another note, most of the supreme bloggers on the net these days are doing a live blog about the erection election results as they come in, there is smoking and drinking allowed so do please join in around 10pm this election night for an all night party, and you can even swear, how cool is that, with:

All Seeing Eye, Barking Spider, Biased-BBC, Corrugated Soundbite, Dick Puddlecote, Governmentitus, GrumpyOldTwat, Man Widdecombe, Subrosa and The Red Rag,

Lets have a f****** party, as Frank Galagher might say.

Blogger Tags: Stuart Bell MP for Middlesbrough, Stuart Bell is more than useless, Ashok Kumar good riddence., you shouldn't have died but you are no loss, no smoke, no vote.